New Fires in Ethiopia: 13 April 2000

Report received 12 April 2000 12:00 GMT
New fires are reported from Eastern Hararghe Zone, Oromiya Region (around 42° E and 9° N). The fires were purposely started in grazing areas by herdsmen on April, 7. From there, they escaped to the surrounding forestlands. As of 10 April 2000 460 ha were burned. Major forest species effected are Hagenia abyssinica, Juniperus procera, Podocarpus africanus and Olea. The fires are approaching Gara Muleta State Forest.
4 people were wounded by stone throw, one of them seriously. This happened, because the bedrocks exploded due to heat expansion.
So far 1,700 fire fighters are mobilised, comprising soldiers, police men and community members.
The Ministry was asked to make fire fighting equipment available to the zone. Currently, efforts are under way to relocate the equipment from Bale and Borana Zones to the new fire areas. Furthermore, the fire fighting trainers which were trained during the previous fire incident will be deployed to the area. For assistance with equipment like water bowsers, tents and trucks different institutions operating in the area will be contacted (army, NGO projects, private companies). The Ministry also recommends that an Incident Command Structure will be established on zonal level.
Several people who are under suspicion of having started the fires were arrested.

Fire Weather Forecast for the Southern Region:
There is only a 20% chance for isolated thundershowers.
If there is not a lot of rain as per region, the fire index will start to rise rapidly over the next couple of days. The only areas that will have a lower fire index will be the areas that received 12mm or more over the last 3 days. Areas with no rain will go much higher than stated in the forecast.

6 Day 14h00 Forecast Ethiopia Region Addis Abba Area
Day	Temp (C)	Hum (%)	W Dir	WSpd (km/h)	Bar (Hpa)	FDI	Tendency
Thu 13	32	43	SW	15	1005	63 Orange
Fri 14	32	45	SW	14	1004	62 Orange
Sat 15	33	43	SW	13	1009	63 Orange
Sun 16	32	38	SSW	12	1009	62 Orange
Mon 17	32	37	SSW	15	1007	65 Orange
Tue 18	31	39	S	15	1006	63 Orange

6 Day 14h00 Forecast Ethiopia Region Goba Area
Day	Temp (C)	Hum (%)	W Dir	WSpd (km/h)	Bar (Hpa)	FDI	Tendency
Thu 13	27	45	SW	17	1009	57 Yellow
Fri 14	28	47	SE	16	1012	57 Yellow
Sat 15	29	45	SE	16	1010	59 Yellow
Sun 16	28	35	SE	13	1010	59 Yellow
Mon 17	28	37	SE	15	1009	60 Orange
Tue 18	27	37	SE	17	1008	60 Orange

Source of forecast tables: Net Forecasting (South Africa) on the base of data from the ECMWF (European Center For Medium Range Weather Forecasts) and the U.K.M.O. (United Kingdom Meteorological Office).

Fig.1. and 2. Fire weather forecast maps for Ethiopia, 13 and 14 April 2000.
Map legend
(Source: Net Forecasting)

For further information (history of the current fire situation in Ethiopia, starting in February 2000) please refer also to the earlier reports this and last week at the "Current Significant Fire Events" page. Some visual impressions from the ongoing fires in Ethiopia and several photographs taken from the Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s with general impression of land cover and fires are also available.